“Noted,” Mayah said. “I’m picturing you in a chef’s hat and apron.”
“Which would look dorky.”
Mayah’s fantasy image was in complete disagreement with that. “Not if that was all you were wearing.”
Tristan contemplated, but shook his head. “Still dorky. I’d have to lose a bet to get me in an outfit like that.”
“Also noted.” But her mind was still on Zakerek. He was the leader of the other dragons, no matter how much he annoyed them. If he came, they would too.
“Okay. So, all those toys and stuff, they need electric power, right?”
“Yeah. And only a couple parts of the castle are wired for power. He has to be near one of those, and be piggybacking off the wiring.” Tristan snapped his fingers. “Which is why the generator’s been fritzing. Zakerek’s man cave.”
Mayah started to giggle. “He must have a crap-ton of stuff in there. And I know which floor he’s probably on.” There was an unused section of the castle that opened onto an enclosed terrace, partially roofed. Perfect for a grill. “Come on. Let’s go visit the man cave.”
They sneaked into the man cave by way of the terrace, surreptitiously scaling the wall rather than magicking open the locked gate, just because Mayah had binge-watched a season of SWAT recently.
The terrace did in fact have a top-of-the-line gas grill. It even had patio furniture. Zakerek had been a busy little shopper.
They made their way to the doors that opened onto the terrace. Inside, Zakerek was slouched on an oversized couch, watching a live-stream football game from Earth.
Alone.
Mayah looked around the man cave with awe. It had everything Tristan had said and more: a fully stocked bar, the pool table, bright flashing signs that must be neon, and all kinds of big boxy game thingies with more twinkling lights and music and sounds.
Tristan murmured, “Shit, there are enough flashing lights in here to give somebody a seizure. I’m surprised he hasn’t blown the generator entirely.”
Stifling a giggle, Mayah sauntered inside. “Zakerek, my friend. Thanks for inviting us to your man cave.”
Zakerek started, spilling half of his bowl of popcorn on the floor. He also had a popcorn machine—Mayah could see it in the corner.
He scrambled to his feet. “Emon got the bill, right? He’s coming for me. I’m going down in flames…”
“Relax.” Mayah perched on the arm of the sofa. “I have a proposition for you.” She got a sudden idea and added slowly, “Two propositions, actually.”
Zakerek glanced at Tristan. “They’re not sexual, I hope. Not that he’s not attractive,” he added hastily. “If you like elves. But I’m not really into threesomes, and…”
Mayah was so, so tempted not to interrupt, and just let him swing in the wind so she could see where this speech would end up, but she didn’t have the heart. And Tristan was growling.
“No sex,” she said. “Proposition number one. I convince Emon to pay for all this without flaming you, and you invite the clan to have a Sunday night barbecue on the terrace. And let them play with your toys. If you’re good, you can even be grillmeister.”
Zakerek frowned. “Who says I want a bunch of idiots messing with my stuff?” Mayah narrowed her eyes at him and he said, “Except you two. Who are not idiots. Of course.”
“Well, if you want to explain the credit card charges to Emon yourself, that’s fine too.”
They stared at each other. Zakerek didn’t budge. Mayah sighed. Stubborn dragon.
“Okay,” she said. “The other proposition is even more important, and has nothing to do with the first one. Whatever you decide about this one, we’ll understand.”
Zakerek frowned at her serious tone. “Okay,” he said. “What is it?”
Mayah explained about the white wolves, and the mission. “It’s probably going to be dangerous, and the Earth Shifter Council is going to be pissed if they find out. Pissed enough that the whole clan might be banned from Earth. You can say no if you want—Emon’s not asking you himself because he thought you might not think you could say no to him. But I’m hoping you’ll say yes.”
She looked him in the eye. “I came to you first because I know you have influence over the other two. If you agree to do it, they’re more likely to come as well. And we could really, really use you on this mission. Lives could depend on it.”
Zakerek looked down, toying with his popcorn bowl. “Huh,” he said. “So now you need us.” But his tone didn’t have any sting to it.
“Think it over,” Mayah said. “It’s probably not happening for a little while—we don’t have all our intel yet. You can let Emon know.”
Zakerek shrugged.
Well, that hadn’t gone quite as well as she’d hoped.
“I guess we’ll be going now,” she said.
“Hell no,” Tristan said. “I’m not going until I have a chance to annihilate this lizard at pool. I bet that table’s barely broken in.”
Zakerek’s head went up. “I could squash you with one claw tied behind my back, Wolf.”
“Want to bet on that? If I win, I get to be grillmeister on Sunday.”
“Fuck no,” Zakerek said. “I’ll bet you a six-pack of cold beer.”
“Done.”
Mayah left them wrangling and racking up the balls, smiling to herself.
Chapter 23
It was late when Tristan got back to Mayah’s room, and she was already in bed. She turned over when he crawled in beside her, even though he tried not to wake her.
“So who won the beer?” she asked.
“I won the six-pack,” he said. “And then Zakerek won it back. But by then we’d already drunk it, so we had to keep playing.”
Mayah giggled. “You’re not making any sense.”
“I know. There was a lot of beer.”
He lay on his side next to her, running his fingers lightly up and down her shoulder, her ribcage, the curve of her hip.
He could never get enough of touching her. He wished he could give her everything she ever wanted—but he could only give her a little.
“When we get to Portland tomorrow,” he said, “I want to take you on a date.”
Mayah, who’d had her eyes half-closed, her dragon purring in her chest, opened them wide. “A date?”
She smiled, and then a little frown wrinkled her forehead between her eyebrows. “But… I thought you wanted to do this reconnaissance as soon as possible, so we can get started on the mission.”
She touched him briefly, skimming her fingertips over his shoulder muscles. “I know how much freeing those captives means to you. Even more than the rest of us.”
“It does,” Tristan admitted. Whenever he wasn’t distracted by something else, the thought of them in there ate away at him, pressing on his brain, as though everything inside him knew they didn’t have much time.
He didn’t have much time either.
Which was why he had to do this.
He went on, “But you mean even more to me.” He bent and kissed her. Everything. You’re everything. “And all evening I kept thinking about what you said to me. About how we still have to live our lives, or those Gen-X fuckers and the people like them will win.”
He gave a half-grin. “It’s kind of why Flynn and Tank and I took over Alexander Grant’s hunting cabin, after we escaped from that hellhole where he kept us. Living in his place, showering in his palatial bathrooms, drinking his top-shelf liquor—all of that was a giant ‘fuck you,’ because he was in prison, and we were free.”
Mayah smiled at him. “Exactly.”
“So I want to give you something you’ve always wanted—just one tiny thing. Your first chance to see an Earth city. Eat in a restaurant. And fly up over the Earth and look to the horizon, and see how big it is.”
Tears filled her eyes, even as she smiled. “You’re on, White Wolf. We’re going to have a hot, fun, fabulous date. And then we’ll go spy on Gen-X, and then we’ll make those motherfucker
s pay.”
By most people’s standards, the beginning of their date wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but Mayah made it seem special. Mostly because she was the kind of person who loved everything, wanted to try everything, and could have a good time doing almost anything.
Tristan had almost forgotten what a good time felt like.
They’d dropped their stuff off at the Greystone brothers’ lair—a stone mansion perched up on a ridge high above downtown Portland.
Zane dropped them off at the restaurant Tristan had picked out, but Tristan told him they’d find their own way home. Mayah wanted to Uber.
“It’s just a car like any other car,” Tristan said. “Except you call it up on your phone.”
“But it sounds so cool when people talk about it on TV.”
Zane grinned. “Trust me. Nothing’s quite as cool as it looks on TV.”
“You’re ruining my date vibe,” Mayah said to him. “Go away.”
Zane just laughed and drove off.
Tristan had chosen a restaurant called the Brazil Grill. First, because they served unlimited meat. Perfect for wolves and dragons. And second, because the meat was brought to the table on skewers by a parade of waiters, and sliced to order.
Mayah was entranced with everything. The drink menu, the salad bar, the way they had a flat plastic disc to signal the waiters. Each side of it was a different color: green for when they wanted waiters to stop at their table with whatever meat was on the skewer; red for when their plates were full, or they wanted to take a break.
“I don’t even know why they have the red side,” Mayah said, sipping her cocktail, which was an improbable shade of purple. “Who would want them to stop bringing meat?”
“Not arguing,” Tristan said. “Taste these garlic rolls. They’re awesome.”
Mayah bit into one. “Oh my god,” she said. “It’s like buttery heaven.”
The first waiter arrived at the table, bearing bacon-wrapped filet mignon. After he’d served them and moved on, Mayah gave Tristan that wicked grin he loved. “They are so going to lose money on us.”
The restaurant undoubtedly did lose money; no one could plow through meat like a dragon, and Tristan did his share of damage. When Mayah was finally complaining she’d burst if she ate one more bite, they left.
“What now?” she asked, looking around the city streets. “Look at this, Tristan. Look at all the people! And the cars. And the stores. Who could buy all these things? Where would they put them?”
“Says the woman with a castle full of empty rooms.”
“I know, but still…” It was getting dark, and the buildings were lighting up. Mayah pointed to a tall building a couple of blocks away, with strings of lights at the base of the gold-colored pyramid that topped it. “Ooh, what’s that one?” she asked.
“That,” Tristan told her, “is where we’re going next. Those lights are a rooftop bar, which the internet says has an amazing view of downtown Portland and the river. Want to?”
“Yes yes yes,” Mayah said. “I want to see everything. I want more purple drinks.” She slipped her arm through Tristan’s and hugged it to her. “Dates are fun.”
Tristan smiled down at her. “This is actually a pretty ordinary date. For Earth people. In cities.”
She kissed his shoulder. “Then they don’t get how lucky they are. And anyway, I have the hottest date, so all the other women are jealous of me.”
He pulled her into a doorway and kissed her, his lips lingering on hers. “They’re not. The other guys are all jealous of me.” He kissed her again. “And that purple drink tastes pretty good. Or maybe that’s just you.”
“Or maybe it’s all that meat. Yum. I can’t believe they give you as much as you want.”
“Neither can they, now that we’ve been there. Come on. We have rooftop drinking to do.”
The rooftop bar was spectacular. Portland was a city of bridges, seven of them spanning the Willamette River near downtown.
All of them sparkled with lights and traffic. They could see boats on the river, and all the city lights below them.
“I want a city,” Mayah said. “Of my own.”
Tristan laughed. “I bet you could take one over, if you tried. But they’re a pain in the ass to keep up. I’d recommend leaving that to the humans, and just buying a penthouse so you could look out at it.”
“Fine,” Mayah said. “Ruin my fantasy.”
She’d had a large number of purple drinks, and Tristan had felt duty-bound to keep up with her. Despite his shifter metabolism, things were pleasantly glowy.
Now Mayah was leaning backward, craning her neck to look up at the pyramid that topped the building. It had a spire at its peak.
“Let’s go up there,” she said. “I totally want to jump off.”
Tristan choked on his purple drink. “You can’t jump off a building in downtown Portland,” he said. “People have video cameras.”
“Fiddle-faddle. I’ll be cloaked.”
“And where will I be?”
“You’ll be with me.”
Tristan didn’t even want to ask how that was going to work.
“Come on,” she coaxed. “There’s a ladder right over there. It goes all the way to the top.”
“Yeah, like building security is going to let us do that.”
Mayah gave a dramatic sigh. “You wolfses have no imagination.”
She pulled him over towards the restricted area where the access ladder was. “Watch this.”
She pointed up into the sky on the opposite side of the rooftop bar. A tiny missile shot from her fingers, and detonated into a colored firework, high above the building.
Everyone’s heads turned to see what it was, and Mayah vaulted over the low wall that separated them from the ladder.
Oh, fuck. Tristan followed, catching her as she got to the bottom of the ladder. “Hold on to me, Wolfie,” she said, and leaped piggyback onto him, wrapping her legs and arms around him.
He felt a shiver of magic.
“See? We’re cloaked. Now climb.”
With a martyred sigh, Tristan began climbing up the ladder, Mayah clinging to his back like a demented monkey. They topped the wall and began climbing at a slant up the side of the pyramid, until finally they reached the base of the spire.
Mayah was giggling like an idiot, and she was setting Tristan off. “Please don’t tell me you want me to climb the fucking spire,” he said. “Because no.”
“No, silly,” she said, sliding to the rooftop. “Now we jump off.”
“Have you forgotten that only one of us has wings?”
“Nope. Now you climb on my back.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Do you want me to uncloak you, and fly off and leave you up here to explain to Security all alone?”
“You are a troublemaker.”
“Yes.”
Tristan started laughing again, which, along with his long legs, made it hard for him to climb on Mayah’s back.
“Good thing I have dragon strength,” she said. “You weigh a ton.”
And then she ran down the slanted pyramid at the back of the building, and jumped out into the air.
For a second Tristan’s heart got stuck in his throat, as the ground rushed up toward them. And then Mayah Changed right underneath him, and they were flying, him straddling her back between two of her neck spines.
It was amazing. They cruised over the city, taking it all in. Due to his purple drink alcoholic haze, Tristan convinced her to dive-bomb the river, and she hurtled down and then snapped her wings open at the last minute, so close that one wingtip sliced the water, sending up a shining plume.
Then they flew high, high up, the city spread out beneath them—and higher still until they could see the valley on the far side of the ridge, and higher still.
Until the lights in the distance followed the curve of the earth, and they could see forever.
Chapter 24
The next night, Ty
r Greystone set Mayah and Tristan up for their trip through the spirit world. They’d decided it would be better to go at night, while the wolves were asleep, considering that two of them had seen and recognized Tristan last time.
They didn’t want the reaction of the wolves to alert any watching guards that someone was there, spying on them from the spirit world.
Tyr and his brothers had a huge collection of Draken artifacts—some that had been left behind by the Draken Guardians who’d once live in the caves under the mansion, and some collected by Tyr in his travels. He was providing Mayah with an artifact that would make the magical wards in the complex visible to them, the way Kira had.
And two more that should allow their spirits to pass through the wards undetected and explore the whole complex, rather than only having access to the hallway where the wolves were. Tyr believed that, since the wolves’ cries for help had called them there, they’d previously been limited to that particular area.
Tyr also stood ready to bring them back to their bodies if anything went wrong.
Thorne Greystone was sitting in, and Emon and Flynn had both decided to show up too, arriving separately at the last minute. To get the intel first-hand, they both claimed.
Mayah didn’t know whether to be touched or annoyed, because she didn’t know whether they’d showed up because they were looking out for her and Tristan, or because they were just paranoid control freaks who didn’t trust anyone else to do a job right.
Since Thorne was also a paranoid control freak, there was some alpha tension going on. As if she and Tristan needed that on top of everything else.
She was glad they’d had their night out on the town, but Tristan wasn’t looking so good. Pale, and like his head hurt, though of course he denied it.
Because wolves. And testosterone.
Flynn was saying, “Are you sure you can find this place without Kira?”
Mayah resisted the urge to smack him. “It’s me they’re calling,” she said. “I can find them.”
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